The present invention involves a light-transmitting, specifically a translucent building component, for use as a wall, roof or ceiling component, etc., featuring a technical membrane.
Technical membranes are textile surface structures which consist, for example, of systems of threads, warp threads and weft yarns, crossing at right angles, but which can also be made up of foils. Such technical membranes used as building materials serve mainly for primary load reduction for wide-span roof support structures. For such buildings, technical membranes are particularly suitable, due to their low surface weight in conjunction with high tensile strength. Currently, their use is limited to serving as protection against external influences, such as humidity, wind, snow and radiation. If special coatings are planned, these soft bending materials feature behavior which is, for example, anti-adhesive to dirt and highly resistant to decomposition. If there are plans to use this material not only as a bearing element but also as a room-closing component, this will involve requirements in terms of heat and sound insulation, in addition to mechanical properties. However, technical membranes generally have poor heat insulation properties, which raises problems of warming and cooling, together with the corresponding energy cost, as well as heat accumulation and accumulation of condensed water as a result of temperature fluctuations. Due to the influence of manifold internal and external noise sources on the structure or the component, rooms can generally only be used if this noise energy is absorbed by room-closing components of great mass. As a result of their low surface weight, the above-mentioned technical membranes by definition feature poor sound-insulating properties.
Construction designs of room-closing components using technical membranes usually try to solve these problems by using insulating materials in connection with arranging the membrane sometimes in 3 to 5 layers. As a result of the low mass of such a construction, satisfactory results can only be achieved by using very thick sound insulation layers, if at all. It is another disadvantage of such a design that it will admit only very little light transmission or none at all, therefore making the introduction of artificial light necessary, with all its well-known disadvantages in terms of energy cost and loss of comfort.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a light-transmitting, specifically a translucent building component, such as for wall, roof or ceiling components, etc of the type mentioned at the beginning, featuring low surface weight while still meeting stringent requirements not only in terms of resistance to climatic influences but also in terms of heat and sound insulation properties.
To solve this task, a light-transmitting, specifically a translucent building component, serving as a wall, roof or ceiling component, etc. of the type mentioned earlier features the an infrared-impeding, light and sound transmitting layer on the side facing inward.
The steps according to the present invention will achieve such a light-transmitting building component, which is structured in three layers and combines all the essential functions for such a light-transmitting component. The technical membrane on the outward-facing side has the primary purpose of load reduction as well as serving as protection against climatic effects, radiation and humidity. Furthermore, this technical membrane also ensures a high degree of light-transmission. The sound insulation layer acts effectively against both external and internal sources of noise. The inward-facing room-closing layer with infrared-inhibiting effect serves to suppress most of the exchange of long-wave radiation between the room and this layer. Since this layer renders the transmission of infrared rays negligible, the heat radiation hitting this layer from the room is reflected back to the room. In other words, due to the reflection of infrared rays to this inner layer, the thermal comfort in the room is significantly improved and the outward-facing technical membrane is heated up. It is not the outward-facing technical membrane, which absorbs solar rays and heats up as a result, which is reflected but rather the temperature in the room. This lowers the calculated mean temperature of the room-closing surfaces. Thermal comfort, of which, according to Fanger, the calculated mean temperature of the enclosing surfaces is a contributing factor, in addition to the atmospheric temperature, is significantly enhanced. If the inward-facing layer is heated up by short-wave solar radiation, only a small portion of this heat is transmitted into the room. Consequently, in addition to improved comfort, the cooling charge to be evacuated from the room is also considerably reduced.
This infrared-inhibiting, light-transmitting layer could for instance be provided directly at the surface of the sound-insulating layer facing inward toward the room. However, the preferred design for the infrared-inhibiting, light-transmitting layer would be as an inward-facing layer of a plastic foil. It is beneficial if the inward-facing layer of plastic foil is arranged at a distance from the sound-insulation layer.
With the spaces between the individual layers, which are preferably of about equal size, connected to the air in the room or to ambient air, appropriate ventilation openings make possible the ventilation of the three-layered construction of the building component from behind, in conjunction with the thermal lift of the warming air column. This avoids physical construction problems in such intermediate spaces, such as the accumulation of condensation and damage resulting from humidity.
The surface of the plastic foil with the infrared-impeding coating is joined to a support featuring preferably regular perforation and/or the thickness of the plastic foil being significantly smaller than that of the support and that the support features perforations over a significant portion of its surface, preferably about 40 to 60%, ensures that the plastic foil provided with an infrared-inhibiting layer in combination with the perforated support, for instance, permits sound waves generated in the room to pass almost without attenuation, so that these sound waves will then be absorbed by the sound-insulation layer located over it. The passage of sound is consequently minimized to the reflection of the room noise back into the room.
The most advantageous designs for the support, the plastic foil and the infrared-inhibiting layer are those based on fiberglass tissue, non-flammable material and abrasion-resistant, respectively, so that light transmission as well as safety considerations are taken into account, as well as the fact that the layer can be cleaned with non-abrasive cleaning agents without losing its function.
The most advantageous design of the sound-insulating layer is based on the feature of hollow bodies of light-transmitting material which are arranged in a direction against each other and offset with the direction of other arrangements of hollow bodies. The hollow bodies have an approximately rectangular shape and are of a roughly trapezoidal cross-section, with the volume of the inner hollow bodies being small and the material of the hollow bodies being mode of UV-resistant material, which is fire-resistant material. The surfaces of the hollow bodies which face the outer or inner layer of the technical membrane, and are parallel to them, have irregular shapes. The acoustic effectiveness is achieved via the bending resilience of the hollow acoustic bodies or their impact surfaces. With appropriate geometry, these hollow absorber bodies can be installed in a self-supporting manner. For structures of a bigger span, it may be necessary to use auxiliary constructions on which the hollow absorber bodies can then be mounted.
Advantageous design of the outward-facing technical membrane can be achieved on the basis of the outer technical membrane being a textile tissue with a plastic coating, and specifically a fiberglass tissue with a PTFE coating, and with the outer technical member being prestressed and the individually layers being mounted firmly in a frame component and kept at a distance from each other. For example, to prevent long-term damage from humidity, fiberglass threads or siliconised PVC threads are used as base material for weaving the technical membrane. To meet strict requirements in terms of anti-dirt adhesion behavior and decomposition resistance, the bearer tissue of the technical membrane is coated with PVC, PTFE or silicone. One main benefit of this design is that it continues to permit a high degree of light transmission.
Further details about the present invention can be seen in the following description, which explains and describes the invention in more detail, based on the sample design represented in the drawing. This includes the following: